Wings Cruising Log

It's just before dawn and only the early risers are up and about...me, to write this email, and a raucous bunch of birds outside the companionway, otherwise its quiet still.

I'm up early to get a few last minute items taken care of before Wings sets sail from Australia. In addition to writing this to inform you all that we will be out of email range, I have weather reports to pick up, sails to bend on, water tanks to top off, a dock key to return, and that's about it. Basically we think we're ready to go.

We have been in Townsville for 12 days, and its been busy for us. We hauled the boat and painted the bottom, also the white stripe on the side which had turned completely green, and fixed some minor dings in the keel, evidence that even with GPS and three depth sounders some people are still capable of hitting the bricks once in a while. After the haulout we ran around town shopping. Since our path for the next year is mostly through 3rd world countries where supermarkets are rare and many foods are unavailable or very expensive, we stocked up as much as possible. At this point the boat is fully loaded with provisions. That was expensive even in a Australia. Prices here, in terms of US dollars have gone up 40% in two years.

We also did a lot of cleaning and fixed some stuff that was broken, (but not much needed to be done), and both of us got haircuts. We are going deep into the tropics you know.

So now we are about to set off to resume our voyage to Hong Kong. We both have expectations that it will go better than last year, when we tried this same trip but turned back from the Solomons with a broken engine. It will take us a year to get to Hong Kong, with stops in the Louisiade Islands, Solomon Islands, New Ireland, Palau, The Philippines, and finally, next June, Hong Kong.

During this year we will experience South East Trade winds, the Northwest Monsoon, and Northeast Trades. We'll visit Melanesian, Micronesian, Malaysian, and Chinese cultures. We'll cross the equator, and we'll travel farther than our original Pacific crossing. Its going to be quite an adventure, and we are really looking forward to it. We'll try to keep you informed, but internet connections may be be hard for us to find in some places. If you don't hear from us for a few weeks, don't imagine that we have sunk, it's only that we're probably lying on some white sandy beach some where under a palm tree where the nearest internet cafe or cell phone is 500 miles away.

So, this is Wings, going offline for now.

Fred & Judy